Jan 08 2025 18 mins 3
Samantha Fish is an in-demand guitarist and singer at the top of her game.
And she seems to be everywhere that there are guitars. In 2024, she was on the cover of Guitar World magazine, toured with guitarist Slash’s S.E.R.P.E.N.T Festival, and opened for the Rolling Stones. In 2023, she performed at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, and appears in the related concert film and live album released last November.
While in Seattle to perform at The Crocodile, Fish squeezed in a visit to KNKX between her sound check and the show. She brought along her acoustic guitar and played one original song “Need You More” and a Charley Patton song “Jim Lee Blues” that dates to around 1930.
With 12 albums under her belt since she started recording in 2009, Fish has been nominated for numerous awards from the Blues Foundation, Blues Blast and Living Blues. Her 2023 release Death Wish Blues with Jesse Dayton earned her a Grammy nomination for Contemporary Blues Album.
Fish grew up in Kansas City, well-known for its rich jazz and blues history, and said she fell in love with music attending live shows, mainly country, blues and rock acts that included Cedric Burnside, Tab Benoit and Mike Zito. She comes from a musical family. Her father was an amateur rock guitarist and her sister Amanda is also a professional guitarist and singer, so their house was always filled with music.
As a young teenager, not wanting to be another guitarist in the family, she took up drumming. But, before long, she couldn’t stay away from the guitar, attracted by its expressive potential. She mentioned listening to AC/DC, Mike Campbell from Tom Petty’s band, and also blues players like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hubert Sumlin; as well as more traditional artists like Charley Patton and R.L. Burnside.
She has a special love for female guitarists such as Bonnie Raitt and Susan Tedeschi, and currently plays a white Gibson SG guitar, like one of her heroines Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Fish is drawn to singers like Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Otis Redding, who sang with passion and soul.
While her music has become more diverse over the years, touching on rock, soul and country, she made it clear that she started out playing blues and still considers it the root of her sound.
Enjoy this stripped down session featuring Fish's original sound, plus an old school blues number.
Songs:
- Need You More
- Jim Lee Blues, Part 1
